FASHIONING DEATH: THE CHOICE AND REPRESENTATION OF FEMALE CLOTHING ON ENGLISH MEDIEVAL FUNERAL MONUMENTS 1250-1450

Abstract

AbstractThe University of ManchesterPamela Anne WalkerDegree of PhD2012This interdisciplinary thesis reassesses the use of funeral monuments for the study of medieval clothing. By using an object-centred quantitative approach, a chronological database of changes depicted on English funeral monuments of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been developed. The analysis of the clothing represented on the monuments has then been used to inform qualitative analysis which looks at the monument in context. For example, the disjunction between depictions of 'immoral' clothing on effigies and brasses and the criticism of this type of clothing has been analysed by using literary sources to show both sides of the contemporary debate on fashionable clothing and its relation to identity .A further study was done on the depiction of jewellery on monuments which found that perceived notions of jewellery being popular with medieval women did not concur with the evidence from the funeral monuments. Analysis of literary, documentary and archaeological sources showed that visual sources must not be taken at face value to illustrate discussions because they need to be seen in context as a funeral monument with its own function, which is the key argument of the thesis.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Cordelia Warr (Supervisor), Gale Owen-Crocker (Supervisor) & Frances Pritchard (Supervisor)